The Russian state aviation agency says it turned over radar data to the Dutch-led investigation team looking into the downing of a Malaysian Airlines jet in eastern Ukraine in 2014. A German press report quotes investigators as saying Russia gave data that does not satisfy international requirements. But Russia says it has no obligation to do so. Who's right?

Sergei Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister

“In addition to spying, U.S. embassy diplomats have repeatedly been seen taking part in the rallies of opposition, anti-government forces, unauthorized rallies, including times when they wore disguise. Do the math yourselves.”

The Russian government did not release evidence to support their claim; there is no confirmed open-source evidence to suggest U.S. diplomats attended protests in disguise, and at least one U.S. ambassador denies it. In 2013, a U.S. embassy worker was arrested by the FSB for alleged spying, but he was not accused of attending protests.

Yunus-Bek Yevkurov

The leader of one of Russia’s poorest and restive regions says that his republic completed an economic improvement program with “good results.” But the claims he makes rely upon economic statistics that either are not in state records or fall short of the program’s goals.

Sergei Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister

"We are convinced that we acted correctly when we responded positively to the request of the lawful government of Syria, a UN member state, a country whose capital was two to three weeks away from being seized by the terrorists.”

The Assad regime was in trouble by the time Russia intervened in Syria in the early fall of 2015. But anti-Assad rebels were not focused on Damascus, nor were the extremist groups Islamic State or Al-Qaeda making inroads near the capital.

Maria Zakharova

spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry

"Large-scale deployments of U.S. troops in Europe have a powerful potential for destroying the entire architecture of European security. They are creating a new military-political reality, substantially upsetting the alignment of forces in Europe."

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has implied that the deployment of 4,000 U.S. troops to bolster Baltic security in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine will “destroy” the post-war security balance on the European continent. Yet Russia’s superiority in tanks and troops at the border and its ability to martial many more is the reason for deterrence.

Russian Ministry of Defense

Press Release

“On January 22, 2017, the command center of the Air-Space Forces of Russia based in Hmeymim received from the American side, via a direct line from the headquarters of the international coalition, the coordinates of IS targets in the area near al-Bab, Aleppo province. After conducting reconnaissance...two planes of the Russian Air-Space forces and two planes of the international coalition forces conducted airstrikes against terrorist objectives.”

Russia’s Department of Defense appears to be stretching beyond the truth when it says Russia and the “international coalition” joined in a bombing mission in Syria against IS. Russian and Turkish media – and experts contacted by Polygraph.info - say recent air strikes on al-Bab were carried out by Russian and Turkish jets. While Turkey allows the U.S.-led coalition to use Incirlik air base, Turkish air strikes on Syria are not conducted under the coalition’s command.

The managing editor of a pro-Russian news agency in Georgia said that a U.S. Congressional Delegation including Senator John McCain demanded a prisoner release from Georgian officials at a meeting in the Georgian capital. The former mayor of Tbilisi, imprisoned for mismanagement of city funds, was released after McCain’s visit but not at the behest of the Senator, a Georgian official said.

Vitaly Churkin

Russia's permanent representative to the United Nations

“Russia actively promotes at the UN a positive human rights agenda. In the past year, our priorities were defense of the rights of children, the disabled, national, religious and language minorities and expansion of the rights and opportunities of women, as well as support of the family and recognition of its role in society.”

But Russia’s poor voting record on both country-specific and issue resolutions exposes this claim, with its vetoes of every resolution to condemn the bombing of civilians in Syria, or opposition to such measures as protecting peaceful demonstrators’ rights.

Victor Sadovnichy

Rector of Moscow State University

“For the first time in the history of Russian universities - even Soviet ones - a world rating placed us in third place by the criteria of (education) quality. That has never happened before - third in the world…among thousands of world universities…Stanford and Oxford are ahead of us and we are in third place.”

The chief of Russia’s oldest university told Russian President Vladimir Putin that his school ranked third in the world in terms of education quality. However, the third-place ranking only pertains to a narrow metric of post-graduation alumni accomplishments.

The United Kingdom is the second largest national contributor of humanitarian aid to Syria, second only to the United States. A source at the British Department for International Development told Polygraph.info that that UK-funded aid, including food, drinking water, shelters and medicine had indeed reached Aleppo during the war.

Sergey Lavrov

Foreign Minister, Russia

"But in fact in this case (the VOA Russian service reporter) was lying because by the time he made these statements…Mr. Peskov and Ms. Zakharova and representatives of the Foreign Affairs Committees had spoken."

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zahkarova apologized to a VOA reporter for incorrect remarks made by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a press conference on Tuesday, in which he misrepresented Voice of America reporting in a way that served to undermine the agency's credibility.